Yellow handkerchief with red dots owned by a young girl in German occupied Budapest

Charlotte (Sari) Landesmann was born on May 30, 1910, in Budapest, Hungary, to Abraham and Margot Landesmann. Charlotte had four brothers, Imre, Tibor, Jancsi, and one, name unknown, and two sisters, Ilona, born 1925, and Roszi, born 1927. When Charlotte was nineteen, she ran her own dress shop where she designed the dresses and had employees sew them. She married Louis (Lajos) Hirsch and had a daughter, Marta, in 1937. Louis opened a feather factory that year where they both worked. On March 19, 1944, German forces occupied Hungary. Within a week, German soldiers came and took Louis from their apartment. A few days later, Charlotte and Marta were evicted and made to move into segregated Jewish housing in Rakosfalva. All women under sixty years of age were ordered to report to a labor camp within three days. Charlotte heard of a Swedish agency that could protect children and she went there with Marta. But after waiting in line for several hours, she changed her mind. It was now after the curfew set for Jews and Charlotte was confronted by a German soldier demanding identification. She produced the Schutzpass [protective pass] from the Swedish consulate provided by her brother, Jancsi, an employee of the consulate. The soldier ripped it up and put her into custody with a group of other Jews, some of whom were being beaten by the German guards. Her daughter began crying and begged one of the soldiers not to hurt her mother. The soldier took Marta by the hand, gestured for Charlotte to come over, and released them; he was an acquaintance of her husband. Afraid to be on the streets, Charlotte went to a nearby building where a non-Jewish acquaintance lived. She asked for help and they hid them in the basement for a few days. Charlotte then decided to put Marta into hiding with one of her non-Jewish teachers and reported to the labor camp. Charlotte was sent to a camp on Turany island in the the Danube River near Budapest. She worked digging tank traps and graves and slept in a small room with 20-25 women; their only food a watery liquid. One night, Charlotte and another woman snuck out and returned with vegetable soup from a sympathetic Hungarian woman who lived on the island. Charlotte gave the woman her wedding ring for this feast. When a fellow laborer fell ill and was to be taken to the hospital by ambulance, Charlotte told the doctor that she was experiencing lung problems so that she would be sent as well. She gave the soldier escorting the transport jewelry to allow her an hour to go see her family. He released Charlotte and told her that he would come back for her in an hour. With the help of the building superintendent, Charlotte hid in the elevator shaft when he returned. When he left to get the police, Charlotte decided to report to the hospital where a doctor told her to leave. She hid in a building overnight, and then contacted a policeman who had been friendly to her family. He reunited her with her daughter and Charlotte returned Marta to the house she had stayed in before they were separated. Charlotte hid in the nearby woods. The next day, she saw people gathering on the streets; she gradually realized that the war was over. Budapest was liberated by the Soviet Army in January 1945. Charlotte and Marta returned to their home. After a while, her brother, Jancsi (James), arrived with their two year old niece. He told her that in spring 1944, the Germans came to the Swedish safe house and took their parents, their sister, Roszi, their sister-in- law, Rose, and James’s 22-year-old wife, Kati, to the banks of the Danube where they shot them and threw them into the river. Jancsi was with his family on the Danube, but believed that he was allowed to leave by a guard because he was holding the toddler. Approximately 300 others were murdered in the same way. Charlotte learned from a former neighbor that her husband, Louis, had been deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp where he perished. Her cousin, Edith, told her that their grandparents had been taken and killed. One of her brothers and his wife came back to Budapest. Her other two brothers never returned. Her sister, Ilona, had been deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, but now returned to Budapest. Charlotte briefly reopened the feather factory that she had owned with her husband. But she and Marta relied upon the letters and aid sent by her two maternal uncles in the United States. Charlotte decided to emigrate to the US. She was told that she could not take Marta with her but would have to come alone, and after six weeks, could send for her. Charlotte arrived in 1948 but, by the time she sent for Marta, there had been a communist takeover in Hungary and the borders were sealed. Jancsi first emigrated to Israel then, with Charlotte’s help, moved to New York City. In 1952, Charlotte married Leslie (Laci) Drucker, who had left Hungary a few years earlier. She opened a successful dress business, Charlotte’s Design. During the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, the borders were opened and Marta, along with her husband and one-year-old daughter, was finally able to join her mother in New York.

Roszi Landesmann was born in 1927, in Budapest, Hungary, to Abraham and Margot Landesmann. Roszi was one of seven children: Imre, Tibor, Jancsi, Charlotte, Ilona, and a brother, name unknown. On March 19, 1944, German forces occupied Hungary. Her brother, Jansci, worked for the Swedish consulate and he provided the family with protective passes issued by the Consul General, stating that the bearers were under the protection of the consulate. Roszi, her parents, Ilona, her sister-in-law, Rose, the wife of her brother, Tibor, and her child, and Jansci’s 22-year old wife, Kati, were living in a house that was under Swedish protection. Her eighteen-year-old sister, Ilona, was arrested on the street one afternoon when she was out doing errands. She was deported to a concentration camp. In the spring of 1944, Roszi and the rest of the family in the safe house were taken by German soldiers to the banks of the Danube and shot; their bodies thrown into the river. Her brother, Jansci, was with the family; he believed that he was set free by a guard because he was holding the toddler at the time. They were among approximately 300 Jews who were murdered this way. Ilona was in Auschwitz when it was liberated by the Soviet army in January 1945. She returned to Budapest where she was reunited with her brother, Jansci, and her sister, Charlotte, and her child. Charlotte had her child had lived in hiding for most of the German occupation. One other brother and his wife also returned from the camps after the war. The other two brothers, Imre and Tibor, and her grandparents perished during the Holocaust.

The handkerchief was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2008 by Charlotte Drucker, the sister of Roszi Landesmann.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Charlotte Drucker